PacifiCorp Foundation grant helps J Bar J hurdle challenge

BEND, Ore. – A $10,000 check from Pacific Power’s charitable arm, the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning, gave the J Bar J Youth Services the boost it needed to meet a challenge grant and buy its home.

J Bar J purchased the former Bend Alpine Hostel building to house integrated homeless youth and provide case management programs for at-risk youth in Central Oregon. “Thanks to the Gates Foundation, the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning and many others, we purchased the building last month,” said Stephanie Alvstad, J Bar J Youth Services executive director.

J Bar J programs provide the mainstay of assistance for troubled youth in Deschutes County, providing residential programs for juvenile offenders, a residential academy for at-risk girls, alternative schools, and the Cascade Youth and Family Center for runaway and homeless youth.

The goal of the campaign, started in June 2003, was to match the $120,000 challenge grant from the Gates Foundation, and to provide a permanent facility in the community to serve homeless and at-risk youth.

“Two years ago, we signed a lease with option to buy,” Alvstad said. “We had until June 2005 to raise $600,000, obtain the matching grant and secure the purchase.

“But the most exciting aspect for me is that we can take the $48,000 we used to spend each year in lease payments and reinvest it into our youth programs.”

The permanent facility and its programs have far-reaching economic and societal benefits. Cascade Youth and Family Center estimates that there are more than 350 runaway and homeless youth in Central Oregon. Cascade is the sole provider of services to runaway and homeless youth in Central Oregon.

"Pacific Power is a long-time supporter of J Bar J’s efforts,” said Angie Jacobson, regional community manager for Pacific Power. “In helping runaway and homeless youth, they are helping the most disenfranchised children in our community.

“It’s an impressive facility. The building provides programs to help kids complete their education, secure employment, meet basic physical and mental health needs, as well as provide case management and family mediation.”

“Central Oregon has long needed a centrally located, staffed, 24-hour facility for emergency runaway and homeless youth,” Alvstad said. “Until now, the police had no place to drop off a runaway youth, other than a detention facility. Our programs help get youth off the streets, into stable living conditions, back into school and into the work force.”
 

About the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning

The PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning was created and incorporated as a corporate foundation in 1988 in order to become the major channel of philanthropy for PacifiCorp, Pacific Power and Utah Power. PacifiCorp and its employees have a long tradition of active involvement in the communities they serve, including charitable contributions, sponsorships of community events and in-kind donations. In June 2005 the PacifiCorp Foundation for Learning awarded more than $300,000 to 42 nonprofit programs in 24 communities in Oregon, California, Idaho, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

Media inquiries: newsdesk@pacificorp.com